Review - The Imperative Series by Linda Wells

RATING
Story - 8.5/10
Characters - 8.5/10
Overall - 8/10

First I must say that this was one whopper of a series. The first book is 791 pages and the second book is 695 pages. Definitely not a quick read. Since I am one of those people that gets lost in the universe and hates when an enjoyable book ends I am not necessarily adverse to a very long book. This series could have lost about 100-200 pages though and would have been a much better read (more on that later).

The Story:
I do not want to give too much away here so I am going to just give a brief general overview. The story begins with Caroline Bingley's jaw dropped to the floor as Darcy purposely compromises Elizabeth in the Netherfield library in front of its inhabitants. It was quite enjoyable to see Caroline's reaction to that, especially so early in the novel. From there the story moves forward at rapid pace with secrets, deceptions, angst, drama and quite a number of intimate scenes. I really enjoyed the new characters that the author created as well as the little known characters that she fleshed out. The story is original and very dramatic (someone wants Darcy dead and its NOT Wickham; Georgiana DID run away with Wickham and is now facing the consequences).

What I didn't like (especially in the second book) was that I felt the intimate scenes were overdone. At least 1/3 of them could have been left out without having any impact on the pacing or cohesiveness of the novels. This would have also served to make the length of the book more palatable to some. Honestly I found myself skipping pages to get past some of the intimate scenes because there were just too many and it was making the book a tad boring. That being said the actual story was really good and overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Characters:
I truly enjoyed the author's characters. Elizabeth had a biting wit and was madly in love with Darcy without losing her spirit and independence. Darcy was romantic, overprotective and took on all of the challenges and dramas as I would have expected him to. Their relationship was full of romance, trust, love, and understanding. The new characters were also interesting and added a lot to the story. I did not necessarily like what she did to Mr. Bennet's and Jane's characters though I could see the logic as well as the necessity for her storyline.On the other hand I loved how she chose to flesh out Lady Catherine, Mr Hurst, Louisa and Wickham. The long length of the novel allowed the author to create three dimensional characters that were a joy to read about.

Overall:
The book was original, full of drama and an interesting what-if story. If it wasn't for the excessive intimate scenes (particularly in the second book) that made the book drag a bit I would have given this series an 8.5.